Lap-seam guide for sewing-machines



(No Model.) A

P. W. MERRIOK.

LAP SEAM GUIDE FOR SEWING MACHINES.

No. 570,288. Patented Oct. 27, 1896..

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UNITED STATES PATENT EEicE.

FRANK \V. MERRIOK, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

LAP-SEAM GUIDE FOR SEWING-MACHINES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 570,288, dated October 27, 1896. Application filed December 26, 1895. Serial No. 573,291. (No model.)

To 00% whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, FRANK WV. MERRIGK, a citizen of the United States, residing at Boston, in the county of Suffolk and State of Massachusettsghave invented certain new and useful Improvements in Lap-Seam Guides forSewing-Machines, of which the following is a specification, reference being had therein to the accompanying drawings.

My invention has relation in general to the devices which are employed in wax-thread sewing-machines. More particularly it relates to lap-seam guides and the means of mounting the same in such machines and securing them in place therein.

The objects of the invention are to provide a lap-seam guide of simple and compact construction which shall be capable of being reversed in position, so as to cause the edge of either one of the two pieces of material that are in process of being stitched to overlie the edge of the other, as may be desired, and also to provide for properly sustaining and securing the said guide in place on the workplate of a sewing-machine with capacity for the ready application or removal of the guide whenever desired.

The invention will be described first with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which latter is represented the best embodiment of the invention that has yet been con trived, and afterward will be more particularly pointed out and distinctly defined in the claim at the close of this specification.

The invention is simple and will be understood readily from the following description, in which latter reference is made to the accompanying drawings.

Figure 1 of the said drawings shows in side elevation, with a small portion broken away in order to illustrate features which otherwise would be concealed, the upper portion of the work-post of a sewing-machine, the said work-post having my invention applied thereto. Fig. 2 is a view of the same in plan. Fig. 3 is a view thereof in plan with the lapseam guide removed. Fig. 41s a View showing the lap-seam guide in side elevation detached.

1 is the work-post of a wax-thread sewingmachine. 2 is the Work-plate on the upper end of the said work-post.

8 3 are the screws which secure the workplate to the work-post.

4 4: are the slots that are made in the workplate to permit of the working of the needles and awls, two of such slots being shown, and it being supposed that two needles and two awls are intended to be employed, as required, in order to produce two parallel lines of stitching.

The foregoing pertain to the customary features of a sewing-machine of the class to which my invention is more especially designed to be applied and are or may be constructed, &c., as usual, save as hereinafter is indicated.

In advance of the slots 4: 4, that is to say, on the side thereof on which the work passes forward to the awls and needles, the upper surface of the work-plate has formed therein a transverse depression 5. (See Fig. 3.) This depression is of a shape corresponding with that of the base 6 of the lap-seam guide 7, it being shown as oblong, and it receives the said base within it, as indicated in Fig.

1. The ends of the said base may be beveled off on their under sides, as indicated at S 8 in Fig. 4-, and these beveled ends may rest upon inwardly-extending correspond- 8o ingly-beveled portions 9 9 on the work-plate 2 within the recess 5 at the opposite ends of the said recess. From the under side of the said base at mid-length thereof depends a hub-like portion 10, Figs. 1 and 4, the same entering a socket 11 in the work-plate.

12 is a hole that is made transverselyin the base of the guide.

13 is a locking device, here shown as con sisting of a piece of spring-wire that is secured to the front of the work-post by a clamping-screw 14, the said piece having one end thereof bent at right angles to the remainder of the wire. The said end passes through a hole made transversely through the outer 9 5 end of the work-plate 2, and its extremity projects into the depression 5. \Vhen the base 6 of the guide 7 is inserted into the depression 5, the end aforesaid of the lockingspring having first been drawn outwardly by force suitably applied to the outer part of the spring, and then having been released after the insertion of the base, so as to permit the said end of the spring to pass inguide from lateral movement and from tilt- \vardly, the said extremity will pass into the hole 12 in the base 6, and thereby will lock the guide in place. The locking-spring will retain the base of the guide in the depression, and the sides of the latter will hold the guide audits base are symmetrically formed 1 at opposite sides of the hole 12, so as to ent able the guide to be reversed in position on i the work-plate Whenever desired.

It will be obvious that my improved mode of applying and securing the guide to the work-plate may be utilized in connection with other forms and kinds of guides.

I claim as my invention The combination with the work-post, the work-plate having a depression therein, and the locking-spring having the free end thereof projecting into the said depression, of the S-shaped lap-seam guide having a symmetrically-shaped base portion fitted to the said depression and reversible therein the said base portion having also the hole to receive the said free end of the locking-spring, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

FRANK W. MERRICK. Witnesses:

CHAS. F. RANDALL, \VM. A. MAcLEoD. 

